How to Show Date and Time on One Line in the XFCE Clock Applet

I use XFCE and find the default stacked date and time display hard to read. Since configuring it to show both on one line doesn’t work out of the box, I applied a small tweak. In this short tutorial, I’ll show you exactly what I did to fix the issue.

Goal

Display the date and time on one clean horizontal line: Tue, Oct 7, 2025 20:17

Steps

1. Right-click the clock on your XFCE panel and choose Properties.
2. Under Layout, set the format to Date only.
3. In the Date section:
   • Set Font to Sans 12
   • Choose Custom Format
   • Enter this string: %A, %b %e, %Y %H:%M
4. In the Time section:
   • Set format to Custom
   • Leave the field empty
   • This hides the stacked time and moves it into the tooltip
5. Click Apply and enjoy your cleaner clock layout!

Tip

If you get an error when clearing the time field, apply the date format first, then go back and empty the time field.